Episode 113: Empowering Parents to Transform IEP Meetings

Discover the key to successfully navigating Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings and ensure your child's educational needs are met. This episode promises to equip parents with the insights and strategies necessary to advocate effectively within the K-12 education system. Uncover the intricacies of the IEP process mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Understand the importance of fostering a collaborative environment, overcoming the challenges of feeling undervalued, and addressing cultural and linguistic barriers that some families face. Cultural competence among educators and the vital inclusion of student voices are also emphasized, ensuring a holistic approach to meeting each child's unique needs.

Prepare to approach your next IEP meeting with confidence and clarity. This episode includes practical tips for parents, like understanding your child's needs, consulting state curriculum standards, and gathering comprehensive information. The discussion focuses on establishing a win-win situation, inventorying student strengths, and setting specific goals aimed to forge a beneficial partnership between parents and school personnel. The conversation underscores the importance of preparing both parents and students to participate actively, ensuring their voices are heard. Whether you're new to the IEP process or looking to enhance your advocacy skills, this episode offers actionable advice to empower both you and your child on their educational journey. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your approach to IEP meetings and foster a supportive educational experience for your child.

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Chapters

• 0:54 Navigating IEP Meetings in Education
• 22:59 Effective Strategies for IEP Meetings

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:55

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim J Fields, former corporate manager turned education researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microaggressions that I faced as an African-American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their education progress. Support my children in their education progress. This podcast is at the intersection between education, research and parental actions. If you're looking to find out more about the current trends, issues and themes in education that could affect you or your children, and you want to know the specific actions you can take to support and advocate for your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 education topics is important to you, so keep listening. In this episode, I'll be discussing IEP meetings and how to make the best of them. The mere notice that you've been invited to an IEP meeting for your child can be alarming and stressful, but you're not alone. The process can be unnerving, but there are best practices that you can utilize to make the meeting beneficial for you and your child. Let's untangle this.

Speaker 1: 3:00

An Individualized Education Program, or IEP, is necessary if the child receives special education services is necessary if the child receives special education services. The goal of the IEP is to provide services for the child to learn more effectively by addressing their needs and how they'll be taught the required curriculum. The IEP team consists of school professionals, parents, administrators and others, with the focus of providing what's best for each child. The 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, requires individualized education program meetings to be held at least annually to develop or review plans that address the educational needs of students with disabilities. Per the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the IEP team should include the child's parent or parents or guardians, along with school professionals representing regular education, special education, a representative of a local education agency and related service providers like speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, etc. As applicable.

Speaker 1: 4:23

The multidisciplinary nature of the IEP team presents both collaborative opportunities and challenges, especially between the school professionals and parents, when parents feel that they are heard, understood, valued and considered knowledgeable regarding their child's education plan, they're more likely to have a positive perception of the IEP meeting experience. On the other hand, when parental input has less influence on team decisions than the input of school professionals, parents tend to be relegated to a more passive role during IEP meetings. The input of school professionals can be displayed in certain actions, such as coming to meetings with predetermined student goals or paperwork that's been completed in advance. In this type of setup, school professionals tend to dominate discussion during IEP meetings and, when this occurs, although parents may voice their concerns during IEP meetings, these concerns are just documented in the meeting notes and seldom lead to addition or revision of special education goals and or services. School professionals typically assume a range of roles in facilitating the IEP meeting process, including being the collaborator, planner, organizer, communicator and relationship builder. Special education teachers are expected to be quote-unquote masters of collaboration when it comes to facilitating the IEP development process by encouraging active engagement from the families, related service providers, case managers, school psychologists and administrators.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Collaboration between general educators and special education teachers during the IEP meeting is especially important for effective instructional planning and delivery. Ideally, families and educators should work in partnership when making a decision about a child's education needs, but both parties may come to the meeting with differing expectations, perceptions and ideas, which creates conditions for conflict. Research on factors contributing to parent-school conflict in special education found that 90% of conflict escalation during IEP meetings occurred due to divergent viewpoints between parents and educators on the needs of the child. One contribution to effective collaboration during IEP meetings is student-centered discussion that highlights the unique strengths and needs of the child. It also seems to be effective for families and school professionals to have pre-meetings with parents, as well as to have meeting agendas that can be provided before the meeting.

Speaker 1: 7:19

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act also emphasizes that parents should have an equal role in creating an IEP for their children with disabilities. Many parents of children who have intellectual and developmental disabilities face challenges in accessing disability services and are typically not treated as equal partners by school professionals during the IEP process. They also encounter difficulties with logistical support, such as transportation to IEP meetings. Culturally and linguistically diverse families of children with disabilities often experience passive roles in IEP meetings. Asian families in particular have expressed concerns about participating in special education services due to disability stigma, inadequate cultural competency among special education professionals and language barriers. Special education professionals' lack of cultural responsiveness may also discourage Asian families from actively engaging in the IEP process. In general, before the IEP meeting, parents report feeling stressed due to strategizing and preparing for the meeting. During the IEP meeting, parents experience stress and anxiety, often feeling outnumbered by school personnel or anxious about their suggestions being accepted. After the IEP meeting, parents report feeling stressed, depressed or relieved, depending on the outcome of the meeting. When parents had prior negative experiences with the school system, such as a perceived lack of concern for the child's best interests, collaboration was hindered during the meeting.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Involving students in the IEP process provides an opportunity for them to work on self-determination skills such as self-efficacy and goal setting. However, students, especially elementary school students, are often overlooked as self-advocates for their own learning. Most elementary school students are often overlooked as self-advocates for their own learning. Most elementary school students are exposed to thinking about themselves as far as their strengths, areas that need improvement and what mechanisms help them learn. While goal setting is part of the plan to get students involved, most elementary school level students aren't prepared to create goals. The students may not always be aware of what they need, but they do know what they want and what is of interest to them. When students participate in developing and writing their IEPs, they tend to be more engaged and involved in the classroom, which enhances academic skills. Goal setting can produce desired changes in student behavior. Not all students in special education are there for learning. Some are there for emotional behavior problems.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Portfolio assessments are a collection of products created and completed by students and they allow teachers, parents and others to observe changes over time, which is beneficial in special education due to the documentation, planning and progress monitoring of the IEP process. Portfolios can provide students with choice and this often motivates them. Although portfolios do reveal their mistakes and weaknesses, children as young as kindergarten have been shown to have the ability to assist in creating their own portfolios. Student involvement in IEPs has been effective for special education students in developing their choice-making and self-determination students in developing their choice making and self-determination. Students were not only able to voice their opinions, but they were given different options for how to learn, develop self-advocacy skills and learn how to set goals and objectives. Regarding goal setting, students in grades K through 3 lacked awareness about their own learning and thus have difficulty creating goals. Goal setting may be more appropriate and more beneficial for students in grades 6 through 12. Elementary students in grades K through 3 are able to identify their strengths and weaknesses, what helps them learn and how to help themselves. After these things have been mastered, they can then begin to develop minor goals to give them more confidence and a familiarity with the IEP process.

Speaker 1: 11:59

For older children, those 14 to 18 years of age, parents should intend to be full partners with school staff in educational planning and transition planning for their children and youth with disabilities. They should become fully engaged in playing an active and meaningful role in the planning process by setting post-high school goals for further education, employment and community living. For transition-aged youth and their parents, iep transition planning meetings have become the foundation upon which services and supports are to be identified and planned for, based on the child's strengths, preferences and interests. Transition planning typically occurs for children who are 16 years old, although some states allow children as young as 14 years old to participate in these IEP transition planning meetings. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires the IEP team to include appropriate measurable post-secondary goals based upon age-appropriate transition assessments related to training, education, employment and, where appropriate, independent living skills, and to provide the necessary transition services, such as certain courses to assist the child in reaching those goals.

Speaker 1: 13:30

Research indicates that youth participation in IEP transition planning is an important opportunity for them to learn, develop and demonstrate self-determination skills, which are critically needed in determining school and post-school goals, making choices and navigating future environments following high school completion. Self-advocacy is also a key component that comes into play when students attend an IEP meeting. These self-advocacy skills include communicating their needs, identifying the supports that they are entitled to, selecting personal goals, planning steps toward achieving those personal goals, assessing one's progress, making choices and using self-monitoring and self-evaluating to reflect on one's behaviors. Research also provides evidence that when students are involved in planning, their involvement leads to higher levels of goal attainment, increased graduation rates and positive impact on post-school outcomes. Interestingly, studies have found differences in the transition planning experiences of students based on disability level, finding that role and contribution of students with more significant disabilities, like intellectual disability, autism, etc. Is far less than students in other disability categories.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Parent participation in IEP transition planning plays an important role in ensuring a successful transition, for their child's abilities, skills and future educational choices have a powerful influence on the outcomes that their child will achieve as an adult. Yet three out of ten young people participated little or not at all during the IEP transition planning, according to recent studies, even when youth were extended an opportunity to attend these meetings, they didn't receive instruction regarding meeting purposes and procedures and had little or no preparation on the role that they could potentially play in expressing strengths, needs, interests and preferences. In contrast, when these teenagers learned the skills necessary to effectively be involved in their IEP transition planning meetings, after they had been taught or coached self-determination and effective leadership skills, they were provided an opportunity to participate, especially when adult team members expected them to participate, attitudes conveyed because parents lacked knowledge of the process and were ill-equipped to make a contribution to the planning, thus making parents feel isolated, mistrustful and not part of the transition team, being treated differently because of their race or ethnicity, and feeling that the transition planning process was more focused on the IEP document rather than their child and their child's goals. The United States appears to be falling behind in providing students with disabilities the opportunity to engage with school staff development of IEP transition plans. The question is whether schools are doing enough to engage these youth in the development of meaningful and measurable transition goals. It seems that many schools are inviting the youth to the process, although it seems more likely that it's just token involvement in the planning process and not intentional about having active participation.

Speaker 1: 17:40

Parent participation in IEP meetings is critical for success. The key is that parents need to be prepared for the meeting, especially the first meeting. This first meeting sets the tone between parents and school personnel, with the goal of developing a partnership that's beneficial for the child. Parental involvement is not only a vital component of the IEP meeting because of the parent's knowledge of the child, but it's a parent's right to participate and be engaged in decision making about his or her child's education. Being prepared can help mitigate any feelings of anxiety and overwhelm when it comes to the initial IEP meeting. Parents need to have an understanding of special education law and their options regarding the services available to them. Parents also need to understand the purpose of the initial IEP meeting, who will be attending the meeting, the roles of the people who will be in attendance, the jargon and professional terminology that will be used in the meeting and the agenda of the meeting. Parents need to be comfortable asking questions, making comments and providing suggestions to team members. It's important for parents to actually talk to someone about the IEP process, because just reading about it is usually not helpful. This person could provide information about what to expect in the meeting, as well as why it's important for parents to participate, so that they feel part of the team. So that they feel part of the team, iep meetings can be held via conference call or over the internet via Zoom, facetime or Skype. This ensures the meetings are scheduled at a mutually agreeable time and place.

Speaker 1: 20:19

One approach to transforming the culture of an IEP meeting is by centering all actions on intentionality, care, optimism, respect and trust, utilizing programs, policies, people, places and processes. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates the required components of an IEP meeting, which include providing prior written notice of IEP meetings to parents. Adhering to state-mandated timelines. Involving a student's parents in the education decision-making. Conducting complete and individualized evaluations. Ensuring that all the necessary team members attend IEP meetings. Including appropriate content in the IEP meeting and ensuring that the IEP is implemented. As written.

Speaker 1: 21:09

A disinviting way to notify a parent, especially a single parent, of an upcoming IEP meeting is to simply mail a letter stating when and where the meeting is to be held and not following up in any way. If the parent can't attend the meeting for various reasons, an intentionally disinvited mindset could misinterpret his or her absence as a lack of parental interest or involvement. As a best practice, the school should provide water and a box of tissues, given that an IEP meeting can be very emotional for parents. It's also preferable that some type of documentation be provided that includes a list of commonly used acronyms and their meanings, since special education professionals use many acronyms. Since special education professionals use many acronyms, it may be advantageous for you to invite an education advocate to attend an IEP meeting with you. This person is trained in federal law and familiar with IEP language. A trained education advocate can help teachers and parents understand important issues and support parents in understanding the IEP process. You can find an education advocate for your situation by going to wwwcopaorg. It's the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates. They have a directory you can search to find education advocates in your area. Also, wwwcadreworksorg provides a downloadable resource for additional information.

Speaker 1: 23:00

The following are tips for attending an IEP meeting. One know what you and your child want and need. Bring your notes and suggestions to the IEP meeting. Two, check the state curriculum standards to see if your child is on grade level or has age appropriate expectations. For example, if your child's in the fourth grade and has no additional disabilities, he or she should be learning fourth grade subject matter and his or her IEP goals should be aligned with the grade four standards in academic subjects. Three gather as much information as you can. Talk to other parents, your child's teacher and other service professionals who work with your child. Additionally, observe your child in the classroom after making arrangements in advance. Four be as calm and collected as possible. If you're frustrated or annoyed with the process and the way that it's going, seek an education advocate or other support like a school counselor, caseworker or family member to figure out the situation and what can be done to ensure the legal rights of your child. Five figure out a win-win situation. No-transcript.

Speaker 1: 24:32

Now let's move from listening to this discussion to applying it. With that in mind, how does what I've just discussed apply to you? Here are the action steps you can take regarding this topic. I know from experience with a friend of mine how stressful and anxiety-filled IEP meetings can be. She had several questions about the process and the goals and outcomes for her son. I educated her on what to expect as well as her level of participation in the meeting. After the meeting, she felt comfortable with the goals and strategies that she and the school professionals devised and after three years he was integrated back into the general education classroom.

Speaker 1: 25:20

Iep meetings generally follow the following process One inventory the student's strengths, weaknesses, goals and choice. Two, present the inventory information. Three, ask questions and respond to those questions. And four, summarize IEP goals. Advocating for inclusive education can be difficult and sometimes very frustrating. Even so, one action item that you can take regarding this topic is, at the conclusion of an IEP meeting, articulate a common vision that you have for your child, based on your knowledge of your child as well as the discussion in the IEP meeting. This vision would include short-term, discrete goals for your child and the plan for how to attain those goals and the plan for how to attain those goals. Another thing that you can do is to ask for a list of names and job titles of the school staff who will be participating in the IEP meeting. Additionally, ask all educational stakeholders to wear name tags or at least provide name tents for where each person is going to be seated. You can also ask if an evaluation survey will be sent to you after the meeting. The evaluation survey should be sent to you in your preferred mode of communication, whether that's digital or hard copy. This evaluation survey would elicit your perception of the educational stakeholders, level of professionalism, school environment, hospitality, flexibility on meeting time, etc. If you intend for your child to attend the IEP meeting, make sure that the school provides fidget devices or stress relieieving objects to help aid your child's participation. Here are this episode's takeaways.

Speaker 1: 27:29

The 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, requires individualized education program meetings to be held at least annually to develop or review plans that address the educational needs of students with disabilities. Per IDEA, the IEP team should include the child's parents or guardians, along with school professionals representing regular education, special education, a representative of the local education agency and related service providers like speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, etc. As applicable, an individualized education program is necessary if the child receives special education services. The goal of the IEP is to provide services for the child to learn more effectively by addressing their needs and how they will be taught the required curriculum. The IEP team consists of school professionals, parents, administrators and others, with the focus of providing what is best for each child.

Speaker 1: 28:47

Getting students involved in their IEPs is important for students with disabilities because it allows them to take more control of their education and understand their strengths and weaknesses, as well as what helps them learn If they can do this at a younger age and as they get older, they can contribute to developing their individual goals. It's important for students to be aware and have a purpose behind their learning. Parent participation in an IEP meeting is critical for success. The key is that parents need to be prepared for the meeting, especially the first meeting. The first meeting sets the tone between parents and school personnel, with the goal of developing a partnership that's beneficial for the child. Parental involvement is not only a vital component of the IEP meeting, but it's a parent's right to participate and be engaged in decision-making about his or her child's education. Being prepared can help mitigate any feelings of anxiety and overwhelm when it comes to the initial IEP meeting.

Speaker 1: 30:10

What's been your experience with attending IEP meetings? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a text comment on my podcast website, k12educationuntangledbuzzsproutcom. If you don't want to miss out on any of the content that I have provided or what I'll provide next, then be sure to subscribe to my podcast on whatever service you're listening to this. Thanks for tuning in and listening to this episode. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.